Sister: Exhausted man didn't want to be killed by officers

Aug. 28, 2013

John Terzani

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HOPEWELL JUNCTION — John Terzani may have been suicidal but the former Mahopac resident also was exhausted, sick and shouldn’t have been shot to death by state police during last week’s standoff, his family has alleged.

“The police forced this standoff to come to an end and are at least partly to blame for killing an exhausted and distraught man who was pacing and vomiting for most of the time during this ‘standoff,’ ” Terzani’s sister, Beverly Rea of Hopewell Junction, said in a statement.

Terzani, 40, a 1991 Mahopac High School graduate, was killed Aug. 20 by state police after he reportedly pointed a loaded semiautomatic handgun at police and refused orders to drop his gun in the woods near his Hopewell Junction home, officials said. The shooting occurred around 2:30 a.m., six hours into the standoff. Terzani was distraught over an impending divorce, officials said.

State police Maj. Michael Kopy on Tuesday declined to comment on the family’s allegations, citing the ongoing investigation.

“It would be inappropriate to discuss this matter further at this time,” he said.

Rea said her brother became suicidal after a confrontation with his wife. He then took her gun, left the house and went to the woods with the intention of killing himself. He had not intended to engage police in a gun battle, she alleged.

But police responded to the scene with night vision goggles, an armored vehicle, automatic weapons and helicopter, which aggravated the situation, Rea said.

“The police response was over the top and completely inappropriate for the situation,” she said. “We do not believe he raised his gun. We think the police officer who shot him fired in error, and we would like this matter further investigated.”

Terzani’s family said they also were barred from making contact with him and that negotiators didn’t tell him his family was nearby until 20 minutes before the shooting. Rea said family members do not think Terzani truly wanted to die.

“Our family feels that the state police completely mishandled this matter leading to the death of my brother,” she said. “Our belief and those of many others we have spoken with was that John did not intend on killing himself based on the fact that he was struggling with it for close to eight hours.”

The fatal standoff follows several high-profile ones in this area. Samuel Cruz, an emotionally disturbed New Rochelle man, was shot and killed by police May 28 after they responded to his Hickory Street apartment on reports that the 48-year-old was holed up and in distress. Lawyers for his family blamed the shooting on inadequate police training.

In 2011, Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. of White Plains was killed by police who went to his apartment after a medical-alert device accidentally went off. Chamberlain was described as emotionally disturbed. Police in riot gear took down his door and shot him, police said, after he lunged at an officer with a knife.